Pressure Transfer The Simple Way

Good morning. If you haven’t ordered your hop rhizomes to begin the journey of growing your own hops, here is your reminder. Ideally they are planted in early spring after the last frost. If you’re interested in buying hop rhizomes you can find them here.

-Brandon Copeland

Closed Transfer The Simple Way

A homebrewer’s biggest enemy is off flavors due to oxidation. You want a healthy amount of oxygen introduced so that you have healthy yeast growth during fermentation.

However, post fermentation your primary goal is to reduce the chance for oxidation in your beer. Oxidation can cause your beer to have a myriad of off-flavors that will tarnish all the hard work you put into the brewing process. A closed transfer is a great way to reduce the chance for oxidation.

How to Execute a Closed Transfer

A closed transfer/pressure transfer is a way of transferring your beer within a closed system, with little to no chance of introducing oxygen in. The simplest way to be able to do this is to use an old keg as your fermenter or another vessel that can be pressurized safely.

To start, clean the keg you will be transferring into, then fill it to the brim with sanitizer. Close it up, apply CO2 and then transfer all the sanitizer out through the liquid line. This ensures that there is only CO2 left in the vessel - I like to pull the pressure relief valve a few times to introduce a little more CO2. At this point, the transfer is ready to begin.

The CO2 tank is moved to the gas in on the fermenter keg, and pressure is applied. I also like to pull the pressure relief valve here as well, to pull any oxygen out at the top level and replace it with CO2. Connect a liquid to liquid line between the kegs, then on the receiving keg, you connect a “blow off” from the gas in post into a sanitizer, like a blow off during fermentation. You should see the beer transferring over, if not you may need to increase the pressure.

This is how I perform closed transfers - I’m sure there are more complex ways to ensure that no oxygen is introduced to the system, but in my opinion this sure beats siphoning from an open bucket into an open keg. If you bottle your beer, you can pressurize the fermenter and then use a counter pressure bottle filler to purge the bottles of oxygen before filling.

Beer Trivia Question

🍺 Prohibition laws were put in place in Iceland in 1915 which prohibited alcohol. In what year did Iceland’s prohibition end?

Read to the end to find out if you're right!

Homebrewing Equipment Highlight

Corny Keg Ball Lock Quick Disconnect (QD) Jumper Line

This may seem simple, but it’s critical for a keg to keg closed transfer. You can buy tubing and 2 liquid ball lock disconnects and assemble it yourself, but this just makes life easier.

Another use for this would be to daisy chain two kegs of the same beer with just one CO2 connection. This can be useful if you make a double batch of the same beer and have room for 2 kegs in your kegerator.

Brewgr Recipe of the Week

Ollies Lager

This lager has 2 grains on the bill, mostly pilsner with 35% Munich Dark. The interesting thing is that the boil is only 30 minutes - to be honest, I’ve never strayed below 60 minutes. This is an otherwise simple lager that is very doable and not too expensive for materials.

Credit: Brewer 119291

Poll Results: Would You Sign Up For The Incognito Membership Tier?

First of all, thank you to everyone who answered this poll and gave us valuable feedback on updates we are planning to make to Brewgr in 2024. Brewgr is for homebrewers, by homebrewers - we want to make your brew day as easy as possible, and feedback is critical to ensuring that we are adding the right features.

The majority of people went with maybe, which is no surprise - once we have the features built, we will release a series of videos explaining exactly how the features work, and what value they can provide so that members can make an informed decision before signing up. We have also received feedback that free trial period could be helpful, so this is something we will aim to implement.

And the Answer Is...

🍺 It wasn’t until 1989 that Iceland’s prohibition ended. The prohibition was mostly on beer - in 1922, the law was updated to only prohibit beer above 2.25% alcohol. The reasoning made by politicians was that beer was a “gateway” alcohol that led to heavier consumption.